Acee: Jim Harbaugh, eccentric action hero

They involve a lot of shooting and impossible action and an aloof hero who speaks in cryptic phrases and with a cunning others can’t even imagine somehow saves a group embroiled in some sort of hopeless crisis.

Back in the day, this kind of movie would star Bruce Willis. Yippee-ki-yay, 49ers.

I’d describe Harbaugh as more eccentric than outright cool. He’s John McClane -- with a “Monk” bent.

Harbaugh’s press conferences don’t even make sense sometimes, and I don’t think it’s on purpose, as opposed to surly Bill Belichick’s brevity.

I ran into him one time as he was coming out of a convenience store near Chargers Park. He was holding the two bites that remained of a hot dog, and he got right in my face to ask me a question about something that I don’t remember. I was too busy looking at the mustard that had somehow made it onto his nose. I remember wondering why in the world he had attacked that dog so ferociously.

And that sweatshirt tucked into his pants! It’s a better look than Belichick’s hoodie. Maybe. Certainly, should the 49ers and Patriots make the Super Bowl, we will have fallen so far sartorially from Lombardi and Landry.

But man, in a way that compares to Belichick, does Harbaugh ever have stones. Iron stones. Stones that start fire. Makes it difficult to walk kind of stones.

Colin Kaepernick is the latest (and greatest) manifestation of that nerve. Harbaugh decided in November that even though his starting quarterback, Alex Smith, was healthy the 49ers would proceed with Kaepernick as the QB.

The 49ers were 6-2-1 under Smith, and his season passer rating was 104.1. His rating in the eight quarters prior to suffering a concussion was 140.2, as he had thrown more touchdowns in that span (five) than incompletions (four).

Harbaugh simply thought Kaepernick was the right guy.

The 49ers finished 5-2 under the second-year pro who had attempted 14 NFL passes prior to taking over for Smith in the middle of the game in which the deposed starter was concussed. Then in Saturday's divisional playoff game, Kapernick's first postseason venture, Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman unleashed a Kaepernick that had only been hinted at before, allowing the kid to run like no QB has ever done in the postseason.

Harbaugh’s approach to coaching is, in a word, fearless. In another word, it's relentless. Remember when he challenged a spot late in the fourth quarter of the preseason finale against the Chargers? Dude doesn’t play around.

The story has been told many times of Jack Harbaugh having instilled in his sons (Jim’s brother, John, is head coach of the Baltimore Ravens) the axiom: “Attack each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”

Indeed.

Harbaugh took over the 49ers coming off a 6-10 season with a quarterback (Smith) considered a bust. Harbaugh had moved over to San Francisco after four years coaching Stanford. That followed his three seasons as the head coach at the University of San Diego, his first head coaching gig.